Having grown up near New York city, I had a summer job working for a brokerage firm in the 30th floor of the south tower the summer after my sophomore year of college. From my desk near a window in that building, I looked uptown, toward the Chrysler building and the Empire State building. On a pretty day the view was remarkable.
"Some plane has apparently flown into one of the World Trade Center buildings," was the first I had heard of it. I replied, "That's sad, I bet it was one of the small sight-seeing planes that flies around Manhattan." It would have been the perfect weather for such a flight, the visibility would have made it possible to see all of Manhattan Island from the Statue of Liberty on the south to Harlem up north. Shoot, you could even see all the way up the Hudson to the Tappan Zee bridge. "It didn't sound like that," was the reply. "It sounded bigger than that." And then we turned on a television. And then we saw, in real time, a giant passenger airliner fly straight into the second tower. It's an image so startling that one's mind has difficulty making sense of it, not to mention the shock and the tragedy. By then it had become clear that his was no accident and that airplanes had been used as tools of terror. "The world will be different for a long time to come," I thought. Little did we know the extent of those differences, those sadnesses, those animosities, those warring visions.
Years ago I was on a fishing trip with a friend. This friend is older than I am and I am grateful for our friendship. He is gentle, kind, soft-hearted. From early on in our friendship, I noticed his tenderness to anything vulnerable. In fact, when we caught fish, he was adamant about holding fish properly and getting them back in the water quickly so they wouldn't be harmed. Over the years as we've fished together, on the one or two occasions that he killed a fish due to the normal mishaps that can happen when fishing, he would be distraught. Some of you who are hunters, may be thinking this is silly. I can appreciate that.
One time we were on a trip and at the end of the day we were talking about the fishing and sharing stories of fish caught and almost caught. Then the mosquitos began to come out. At one point, a mosquito landed on his arm and he gently leaned his face toward it, and with a soft blow from his mouth, he blew the mosquito off his arm. I watched this in surprise. Most of the time I felt that mosquitos deserved to be slapped flat, a gray and red blotch of mosquito death in the blood that had been sucked from my body. "You don't like to kill anything do you?" I asked. He was quiet for a moment, and what he said next is a moment I've never forgotten. He said, "No brother, I did enough killing in Vietnam. I don't ever want to kill anything again." I was stunned. I was silent. I had no idea. We'd never talked about this. I didn't even know he had been in the Vietnam War.
After some silence where we were looking at each other, I said, "I had no idea. I've never heard you talk about that." "Yeah, a lot of hard memories," he said. Quiet again... "If you would ever like to talk more about that or tell me about it, I'd be interested in hearing," I replied. Then a pause again and then he began to tell me. He told me of stories of approaching Vietnamese villages, not knowing who's going to try to kill you or not. He told me stories of terrifying fire fights and friends being killed - one who was shot to pieces and died lying across his lap. He told me more, more stories, more pain, more of the sights and sounds and smells. He said wistfully, "I did it because I am an American and I felt I had to do what the country asked of me." He talked, I listened, tears come to each of us as he spoke. It was a poignant, intimate, vulnerable time of friendship.
All of this brings me to be praying for peace today, September 11, 2012, 11 years after the 11th. I'm praying for peace in our world, which I have come to believe is not possible without peace in human hearts. I hope you'll join me in praying for peace. It's rigorous and hard praying. To pray for peace is to pray for your enemies. Jesus taught it, and it's rigorous praying. It goes against every normal vengeful emotion. "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," He said. (Matthew 5:44). What I can tell you, is that when I do this hard work, my own heart is softened. That's progress. This is also hard praying because I have never been a "pacifist at all costs," person. But I will say that I am seeking peace more at this stage of life than ever in my past. "Blessed are the peacemakers," Jesus said, "for they shall be called sons of God."
None of the other couplets of Jesus' beatitudes say that a person shall "be called a son of God," - but this is what is said of peacemakers. Sounds simplistic perhaps? I can say this, it's hard praying. When one feels sure that there is an enemy that seeks your death and destruction with a deep hatred in their heart, it's hard praying. But here's a challenge for the serious disciple of Jesus: Jesus was a peacemaker.
Sadly, I do not believe there will be an end to wars until there is an end to sin. And honestly, I don't believe that will happen until God's final reconciliation day when peace becomes the final and comprehensive reality. In this new order, those who had previously sought to kill each other will now lie down together in peace; "wolf and the lamb will lie together, and a little child shall lead them." (Isaiah 11) At this stage of my struggling learning with Jesus, I accept that in our fallen world, there may be a place and time to go to war. Ecclesiastes 3 suggests so. But I'm more desirous of peace now, more willing to work harder for it. Yes, praying for your enemies is the first step of peacemaking. It's hard praying. Did I mention that yet?
On a less global scale, praying for your enemies is one way that we, with Jesus' help, can keep many wars from starting. Not the big wars, the smaller everyday wars. Who are you unhappy with today? Who is bringing you pain, and hurt? Will you join me today in praying for them? Praying God will bless them with Himself, with His goodness, with His love - and that they would feel it, and be able to know the goodness of the Lord? Will you pray for things to go well for them, and pray for their soul to know joy and fulfillment? Join me if you will. Join me in seeking the one "who makes wars cease to the ends of the earth" (Psalm 46). This is a profound form of Christian prayer and it's very hard work. I think I already mentioned that.
